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Activists hijack public CCTV signal

By Will Knight

A team of Austrian computer activists have demonstrated a method of hijacking police CCTV cameras, in protest over increased surveillance of public areas in their country’s capital.

A group called Quintessenz used an off-the-shelf satellite receiver to intercept the video signal transmitted by a surveillance camera overlooking a busy square in the capital Vienna. The feed had been crudely scrambled by modifying the analogue video signal but the activists were able to unscramble it using commercial video processing software.

This enabled them to view everything recorded by the camera, and revealed both its capabilities and shortcomings. “The funny thing was, the camera wasn’t able to see right below itself,” says Christian Moch, a spokesman for Quintessenz, “so people could carry out drug deals underneath it without being seen”.

Moch says Quintessenz decided to hijack the camera to protest over a law introduced in Austria in 2005 permitting police to install surveillance equipment in public places without obtaining a warrant. “They’re watching our every move and that’s just wrong,” he told New Scientist. “It’s too close to the book 1984.”

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Part of the stunt saw the activists experiment with different ways to block the video camera’s view – they found that laser pointers and balloons were both effective. Since they carried out the prank, the police have started using cameras that transmit their video feed via a cable instead of using a radio link.

Magic bullet

Quintessenz members Martin Slunksy and Adrian Dabrowski demonstrated the camera trickery at the 22nd annual Chaos Communication Congress, an event for computer security buffs held in Berlin, Germany, between 27 and 30 December. The event is coordinated by the German Chaos Computer Club, a renowned European activist group.

Campaign groups in the UK have similar concerns over CCTV surveillance. The UK has 4 million public CCTV cameras – more than any other country in Western Europe.

“On occasion it can be very useful,” says Doug Jewell, campaign coordinator at the UK organisation Liberty. “But we don’t think it’s the magic bullet that the government thinks it is.”

Jewell says studies have shown that changing street lighting can have a bigger impact on crime reduction than the introduction of CCTV cameras. He adds that those who live in London are likely to be captured on CCTV cameras up to 300 times a day. “It’s also the databases that accompany these systems that are concerning,” he warns.

In December 2005, the British government disclosed plans to track all vehicles with software that recognises registration plates. Records of these vehicle movements may then be kept on a database for between two and five years.